"[14] A spill called by two WA backbenchers failed to raise the numbers for a change in leadership, however leaking and backgrounding against Abbott continued, though polling for the Coalition began to improve.

On 27 August 2018, three days after Morrison succeeded Turnbull as leader, Hogan confirmed that he would sit on the crossbench, while remaining a member of the National Party and providing confidence and supply to the government.

[42] She told Fairfax Media that she was prepared to refer Turnbull's challenger Peter Dutton to the High Court over his eligibility to sit in Parliament, a move that would further reduce the government's numbers on the floor of the House.

[48] On 19 January 2019, Kelly O'Dwyer, Minister for Women, Jobs and Industrial Relations, announced that she would not be contesting the upcoming election as her two children would be approaching primary school age and she wanted to give her and her husband the best opportunity for a third child.

[56] Morrison said the government would "continue to consolidate the budget", but its priorities for spending included additional school and hospital funding, affordable medicines and the national disability insurance scheme.

"[61][62] The government also promised $100 billion infrastructure funding over the decade and offered one-off payments for nearly 4 million welfare recipients to cover the cost of energy prices, which Labor supported.

[65] Overall, Labor had approximately $200 billion more funding than the Coalition to utilise over the decade; as it proposed more revenue raising, including scaling back negative gearing and abolishing cash refunds for excess franking credits, policies which were vociferously opposed by the government.

Australia ratified the agreement in November 2019 (alongside CEPAs with Peru, Hong Kong and China)[81] and Indonesia followed suit in February 2020, with its provisions coming into effect in April 2020.

In an historic address to the Australian Parliament following the ratification of the agreement, Indonesian President Joko Widodo welcomed the pact and said that Australia is Indonesia's closest friend, while calling on the two democracies to battle against identity politics, improve human rights, foster greater tolerance and stop terrorism.

Morrison said in reply "We now have a plan of action to take the next steps in our relationship — from trade and investment to defence, counter-terrorism, maritime security, ocean sustainability and education, to name only some — and even today we add energy and the future of fuel sources for our nations to this long list.

[113] The National School Chaplaincy Programme, following the extension of its funding confirmed during the 2018 federal budget, will be the subject of a new agreement between the states and the commonwealth, requiring complaints against chaplains to be centrally recorded.

He also pointed out the numerous obstacles any potential people-smuggler or asylum seeker would have to face, because the deterrent aspects of the policy were still firmly in place, and the new legislation applied only to the approximately 1,000 people still on Nauru and Manus (of whom only a relatively small number will be allowed to access the urgent medical attention they need).

[155] Kelly indicated he might run as an independent if the Party dis-endorsed him,[156][157][158] and Kent Johns was offered a $350,000 six-month job to withdraw from the preselection race by the president of Morrison's federal electoral conference.

[162] Karvelas wrote that it was extraordinary the party would intervene to "save a bloke" when "women MPs like Jane Prentice and Ann Sudmalis are not afforded the same intervention to stay on in Parliament when faced with preselection challenges.

"[163] Zimmerman dismissed the comparison in an interview with Karvelas on ABC Radio, saying Sudmalis had quit, while Prentice's preselection had occurred prior to the instability occasioned by the departure of Turnbull.

[161] Despite being expected to win preselection, and being asked to remain by Morrison, Sudmalis had quit as a candidate for her marginal electorate following the removal of Turnbull as leader, citing grievances with the NSW division of the Party.

In December 2020, Wellington sided with Canberra during a dispute with China over a controversial social media post by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian accusing Australia of committing war crimes in Afghanistan in response to the Brereton Report.

The leaders announced further initiatives on COVID-19 vaccines, technology and climate change, and launched Quad cooperation on clean energy supply chains, infrastructure, cyber, outer space, and cultivating next-generation STEM talent.

The agreement formed the most significant security arrangement between the three nations since World War Two, and came in the context of rapidly expanding naval and military spending by Communist China.

French President Emmanuel Macron reacted angrily to the announcement, publicly accused Morrison of lying, and recalled France's ambassadors to Australia and the United States, as well as Malaysia and Indonesia.

The deal reduced restrictions on Australians to live and work in Britain, and will eliminate or phase out tariffs on a large range of products, including lamb, beef, sugar and dairy.

The Government called it "the most comprehensive and ambitious free trade agreement that Australia has concluded, other than with New Zealand..."[206] The Counter-Terrorism (Temporary Exclusion Orders) Act 2019 and related legislation passed the parliament on 25 July 2019.

[231] In the previous parliament, the two major parties had been unable to agree on legislation which would have removed the right of religious schools to expel LGBT students and sack homosexual teachers.

The draft legislation included provisions preventing employers from limiting the religious expression of workers in their private capacity (unless the business can prove it is a "reasonable" limitation and necessary to avoid unjustifiable financial hardship) and explicitly overrides a Tasmanian anti-discrimination law, which prohibits conduct which "offends, humiliates, intimidates, insults or ridicules" based on protected grounds including gender, race, age, sexual orientation, disability and relationship status.

[255] While touring bushfire hit communities in Queensland on 13 September, Morrison announced that people affected by the fires would be eligible for additional financial assistance of up to 13 weeks of support payments equivalent to the maximum rate of the Newstart Allowance.

[257] On 4 January, the Prime Minister confirmed that the grant would become a permanent annual increase, and committed $20m to lease four extra large air tankers to combat the fires.

[255] The extent of the bushfires led to controversy over the federal response to the fires and its policies on reducing or adapting to climate change, after ministers initially downplayed the severity of the crisis.

ABC political correspondent Laura Tingle argued in an 3 March editorial for the 7:30 program that it did not matter if he been found guilty of a crime beyond reasonable doubt, but that "perception" was sufficient for his removal.

Journalists revealed that in the lead up to her death she had been seeking assistance for alleged bullying by senior Labor Senators Penny Wong, Kristina Keneally and Katy Gallagher.

After the bulk of the votes had been counted and a Labor victory appeared inevitable, Morrison conceded the election, and then announced his intention to resign as the Liberal Party leader.